02.20. Is the Kaiser the Antichrist?
XX IS THE KAISER THE ANTICHRIST?
AMONG the many questions in the realm of prophecy which have arisen during the war, one of the most persistent has been, "Is the Kaiser the Antichrist’" which we consider in this chapter.
Two or three months ago occasion was had to correspond with several Bible teachers who are authorities in prophetic study, when the question of the Kaiser’s being the Antichrist was taken up. The letters were so interesting and informing that permission was obtained to publish some of them.
I The first is from the Rev. I. M. Haldeman, D. D., pastor of the First Baptist Church, Seventy-ninth Street and Broadway, New York City, who writes:
"There are many things in the career, attitude and speech of the Kaiser, together with his victorious march to the East, which suggest the Antichrist. Should he succeed as he is now endeavouring to do in raising an army of a million or two of Asiatics; should he take possession of Persia, Armenia and the Euphratean valley; set up a kingdom from Bagdad to Babylon j assume the titles of the Chaldean, the Assyrian and king of Babylon; win Jerusalem from the English and then announce himself protector of the Jews; declare the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire or the Germano-Roman Empire as he has promised to do, with greater extension and glory than it ever knew, he would almost line for line be fulfilling the portrait of the Wicked One.
"But we must measure final things by the image. The image has a twofold process of fulfillment; from the head to the feet--from the feet to the head. So far it has been going down from the head to the feet. We are undoubtedly in the region or the beginning of the region of the clay. The Antichrist can come only when the prophecy starts backward or upward from the feet to the head. As the clay is the basic element (and that is the people), then the iron (the autocratic) element can come in only after the clay has come to the front.
"The federation of ten kings comes not from war as such, nor as the result of a conqueror’s victory, but by and from the people, who must produce the democratic kings. The last Kaiser can become such only after five democratic kings come in the region of the Western Empire and five in the Eastern (starting from the Adriatic line and below the Danube).
"The initial act of the Antichrist which throws him forward to Europe is the overthrow of three democratic and eastern systems. He becomes the wild beast of whom the question is asked, ’Who is able to make war with him?’ only after he has become the head of the image. Then the question must further arise: ’Against whom does he make war?’ Evidently not against his own ten kings. This being so would eliminate him as a personal or possible factor in this war, and necessarily free the present Kaiser from identification with him.
"Bacon says prophecy has a budding, a blossoming and a fulfilling. I am assured we are largely in the blossoming, and every day’s event gives emphasis to the fulfillment of prophecy and the verification of the written Word, but the Kaiser is not the Antichrist."
Some of our readers may welcome a few words of explanation of the above.
Dr. Haldeman’s reference to the "image" means that which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saw in his dream as recorded and interpreted in Daniel 2:1-49. It revealed the whole course of Gentile history in the world from that day till the end of this age. The ten toes of the image are having their historical fulfillment now, in Dr. Haldeman’s judgment. They were composed part of iron and part of clay, the latter representing democracy, the former autocracy. Democracy is coming into the ascendant at the present time, but there will be a reaction, as he understands the prophecy, and from the people themselves will arise the autocratic despot, the Antichrist. This will not be, however, until the ten "democratic kings," or kingdoms, are clearly defined, and divided evenly between the eastern and western halves of the old Roman Empire. When the Antichrist arises, his appearance will be coincident with his overthrow of three of the eastern kingdoms, after which the growth of his power will be rapid until he is at the head of the ten, the head of the image and the successor of Nebuchadnezzar. He then goes forth to "make war"; but as it is obvious that he does not make war against his own under kings, or his own kingdoms, he cannot be the Kaiser, because the latter is at present making war against some or most of those very kingdoms at whose head the Antichrist shall be.
This, as Dr. Haldeman says, does "necessarily free the present Kaiser from identification with him."
II
We follow Dr. Haldeman’s communication with that of Dr. C. I. Scofield, because he also stresses the point that the political despot we have in mind comes out from among the people, the democracy. Dr. Scofield, unlike Dr. Haldeman, and some others, distinguishes between the "Beast" of Revelation 13:1-18 and the Antichrist. The" Beast," in his opinion, is the political despot, and the Antichrist the false prophet associated with him in that chapter. For our purpose, however, this distinction need not be pressed, as we are talking about the political despot himself, the wicked head of the Gentile powers at the end of the age, whether he be called for the present “Beast" or the "Antichrist." Of him Dr. Scofield says: "The one unanswerable objection to the Kaiser-Beast theory is that the ’Beast’ rises ’out of the sea,’i.e., the mere mass of men. Napoleon Bonaparte might well be taken as an adumbration. The Kaiser comes of a race of rulers, and is by no means merged in the mass of mankind.
"Another collateral argument rests upon the man of one kingdom overcoming two, over which he reigns, and then over the federated restored empire. The whole setting is of the East, and not of northern Europe.
"Moreover, the final scene brings against him in his place ’in the glorious holy mountain’ powers from the North and South. If the ’Beast’ is the Kaiser, his own power is in the North; therefore I do not believe the Kaiser-Beast theory."
III
Mr. A. C. Gaebelein, editor of Our Hope, is the next authority. He is the author of many Bible commentaries, that on Daniel probably being the best known. Like Dr. Scofield, he says: "It is very necessary to distinguish between the two leaders of the end of the age, who head the apostate forces after the true Church has been caught away. The one is the head of the reconstructed Roman Empire seen by Daniel as the little horn among the ten horns (Daniel 7:1-28) and as the prince in Daniel 9:1-27; the other is the personal Antichrist, whose picture is given in Daniel 11:1-45. The one is the political masterpiece of Satan and the other the ecclesiastical head.
"The head of the Roman Empire (the political masterpiece) must appear first, but he cannot appear till that empire is formed. The final Antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son, who does away with all Christian doctrine and opposeth and exalteth himself, ete., cannot come till the apostasy is here. The apostasy in turn cannot come as long as the true Church is in earth.
"To restate: The emperor over the Roman Empire will not appear till that empire is formed. The personal Antichrist will be manifested when the apostasy has come. Inasmuch, then, as we have no Roman Empire revived and the apostasy is not here, and above all, the true Church is still on earth and the Body of Christ still forming, the two persons are not in power."
IV The following from the pen of W. J. Erdman, D. D., of Germantown, Pa., is very clear. He is one of the last representatives of that distinguished company of Bible expounders among whom the late Dr. James H. Brookes was a leader, and which included Bishop William R. Nicholson and President W. G. Moorehead, Professors Kellogg and Stiller, Doctors West, Gordon, Parsons and Pierson, and Evangelists Needham and Major Whittle. There were giants in those days, and their summer rendezvous was the Bible Conference at Niagara, of which Dr. Erdman was for years the honoured and efficient secretary.
Coming to the question, "Is the Kaiser the Antichrist?" he says, "No," for the following reasons:
"1. Because the ’ten toes’ or ’ten horns’ do not now exist in Europe, Asia, Africa, and he rises later from among the horns and is autocrat over all.
"2. No system like the ’Woman Babylon’ now exists, to be upheld by the ’beast and ten kings’ for a while and then destroyed by them. Papal Rome cannot be the ’Babylon’ now; the Pope, in spite of all his claims, is in fact of small account just now.
"3. But the Kaiser and the ambitions of Germany and the War do give the nations a sample of what will come in the days of the ’beast.’
"4. A season of peace will follow this war, in which the Lord will give man another trial in religion and government; but the outcome will be ’Babylon’ and the ’Beast.’ But I am firm in the belief that the Kaiser does not ’fill the bill’ of the Antichrist, whether politically as the ’ten-horned beast,’ or doctrinally as the ’two horned,’ his minister and miracle-worker.
"Wilhelm II will have to be grayer than he is now to see his Antichrist’s day."
V
We conclude with a brief paragraph from the Rev. Robert Cameron, D. D., of Seattle, Wash., joint editor with the Rev. Mark A. Matthews, D. D., of Watchword and Truth.
"As to the Kaiser," he says, "I see no difficulty in answering that. The Antichrist will be at the head of the ten nations; his capital, or rather the center of his political movements, will be Babylon rebuilt; his religious persecutions will have their center in Jerusalem and Palestine. That is perfectly plain. Therefore, the Kaiser cannot be the Antichrist. He may be, and is doubtless, in some respects, a foreshadowing of what the Antichrist will be."
Summing up the foregoing therefore, we find that the Kaiser is not the Antichrist for the following reasons:
1. Because the time has not arrived for the Antichrist to appear.
(a) The people, that is the democracy, are not yet in power in the eastern and western portions of the Roman Empire. In other words, the renewed Roman Empire is not yet formed.
(b) The apostasy has not yet come to a head.
(c) The Church has not yet been translated.
2. The Kaiser is making war against some of the very peoples who will give the power to the Antichrist, which contradicts the thought that he could be that person.
3. The Antichrist and the "Beast," if they be regarded as separate persons, arise in the East and not in northern Europe, which precludes the thought of the Kaiser being the Antichrist.
QUESTIONS ON THE LESSON 1. Name and identify the contemporaneous Bible teachers mentioned.
2. How is the Kaiser said to suggest the Antichrist?
3. How should these likenesses be measured?
4. From among whom will the Antichrist ultimately arise?
5. How do Dr. Scofield and some others distinguish between the" Beast" and the Antichrist?
6. In what marked particular does Dr. Scofield corroborate Dr. Haldeman?
7. According to Mr. Gaebelein what must precede the manifestation of the Antichrist?
8. What in his judgment holds back the apostasy?
9. State in your own words the four points made by Dr. Erdman.
10. Sum up all the answers.